Hand-held cereal bars are known in the art. A cereal bar provides a portable, conveniently packaged, immediately available meal or snack. However, to date, it has proven difficult to provide a nutritious product without sacrificing taste and flavor. Also, a commercially successful cereal bar should have a long shelf life and have a consistent flavor and texture during that shelf life.
Cereal bars typically comprise particles bound together with a mixture of sugar syrup and fat or with another binder as a matrix. The particles typically are cereals and grains, together with inclusions or additions. Inclusions and additions are selected from items such as fruit, nuts, and other bits such as chocolate bits and marshmallow bits.
Binders are a source of difficulty in bar formulations. Typically, binders comprise sugar syrup and fat. Such binders yield a cereal bar that is likely to be sticky and sweet, and which hardens over time. Many consumers do not prefer an excessively sweet flavor. Similarly, a sticky product is not favored by consumers seeking to enjoy a neat meal or snack. Whereas addition of fat may harden the binder and reduce stickiness, fat adds calories without adding to nutritional value.
Another potential coating source is confectionary coatings, such as granulated sugar and chocolate- and cocoa-based coatings. However, granulated sugar is not a good binder, and chocolate-based coatings tend to melt. Further, such binders tend to change the flavor of the bar to sweet, or to completely mask the flavors of the particles with the flavor of the coating.
Binders also tend to affect the texture of the cereal bar. Sticky binders cause the particles of the end product to stick together yielding a sticky matrix in the end product, thus reducing crunchiness. Fats in the binder may provide a mouthfeel incompatible with the crispness or crunchiness of the particles. Such a mouthfeel may not be acceptable to many consumers.
In an attempt to provide a cereal bar with a crisp texture, binder systems have been proposed. Such binder systems require two-component, two-texture binders to achieve the desired taste and texture. The first binder is a crisp material comprising whipped protein foam in aqueous solution form and a protein foam stabilizer. The second binder is a chewy binder comprising a gelled solution of gelatin in glycerol. The binders are used in combination. This binder combination requires additional processing and yields an ambiguous texture that is not crunchy.
Thus, there exists a need for a nutritious cereal bar that meets all these needs. In particular, there exists a need for an easily manufactured, nutritious cereal bar that has a crunchy texture and does not include a sweet or sticky binder.